And so it begins . . . .

Let me introduce myself. My name is Tamara. I consider myself a conservative in that I don't believe Government can solve all problems or that Government knows best. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This means I am a Christian and it is also where the title to this blog comes from. In the Book of Mormon, at a time of political unrest a man called Moroni tore his cloak and wrote on it this basic truth: "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children." Alma 46:12. He attached it to a pole and called it the Title of Liberty. He then went forth with this cloak and pole to help the people know the truth and make choices based on this truth, not coercion or rhetoric.

During this last presidential campaign, I and my friend Bonnie became very frustrated because it seemed there was no place to turn for truth and facts that didn't have some kind of agenda. That wasn't trying to tell us how to think about what was being said. So I began searching for the facts myself.

One of the things I became curious about was money. What is the government doing with the money they get from me? I knew the President proposed a budget but what happens then. Does the President have the authority to spend money? How does it work? As I researched, I discussed my findings with my friend, Bonnie and she brought up other questions that she had. As we discussed things, we realized there were probably others like us that are tired of being told what to think and may not have the time or resources to search on their own, so we decided to publish what we find in a blog.

This is the first entry in what we hope will be a long series of entries. We are going to publish twice a week. I will write one and Bonnie will write one. Bonnie will introduce herself with her first entry.

We may state our opinions on what we find but it will be clear to you, the reader, which is opinion and which is fact. We will include our sources and we will be diligent in using sources that are accurate. We will also provide links where appropriate so you can review our findings for yourself. We will also let you know what you can do if you like or dislike the facts we find. Our sole goal or agenda, if you will, is to empower ourselves with the truth and share what we find with others.

Results of research
As I said I was curious about the money. I started my search by googling 'appropriation bills'. One of the sites led me to a government site with a paper on the process. http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/appfacts.pdf

How the process works is this:

1. The President submits a Budget to Congress
2. Congress can use this budget as a basis to then draw up their own Budget Resolution.
3. The allocations in this budget resolution are used by the House and Senate appropriation committees to create Appropriation bills that have to be passed by the House and Senate.
4. There are 13 such bills that are done for each year.
5. The government operates on a fiscal year that starts on October 1st each year.
6. These bills give budget authority to the various bureaus, agencies and quasi government committees which have been set up by the federal government.
7. Budget authority is the monetary limit that an entity has to create obligations against the federal treasury.
8. The only thing the President can do to affect the spending of money is to veto these appropriation bills.

From this paper I learned that because of how the appropriation bills are worded, the money is really spent by all the bureaus, agencies and quasi-government committees. It is their budgets that would need to be examined to see where the money is going.

When I googled government agencies to see how many there were, I found the following government website: http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/federal.shtml and a link on it lists too many of these entities to be named here but I will list the main ones that I found on a organiziational chart found on this site: http://bensguide.gpo.gov/files/gov_chart.pdf.

3 main branches - Legislative, Executive, Judicial
15 departments - Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, The Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, The Treasury, Veteran Affairs.

On my next blog I will outline the amount of money that was allocated in 2008 for each of the main departments.

Since it is Congress and not the President who controls the allocation of our money, they are the ones to contact if you like or dislike what you know about how the money is spent. So I have included links to the House and Senate Home pages. They will help you to find out who your Congressional representatives are and how to contact them to encourage them to maintain things as they are or to work to change them.

House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/ - search for your representative is on the left near the top of the page.
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/ - search for your senator is on the right near the top of the page.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Tamara:)